Don’t Depend On SEO – The Only Constant Is Change!

In the past few months I decided to re-dedicate myself to increasing my SEO on several of my web sites. Most have been around quite some time and have good page rankings but have slipped in position on many of my most effective keywords.

Like many, I have Google Adwords campaigns running that produce sales so it’s been easy to ignore my basic Search Engine Optimization and keyword positions. Plus, Google has been up to it’s favorite pastime of making changes to its ranking algorithms, which has had an impact. And right now Google is the big dog so you have little choice but to listen to the music.

Now if you have the basics covered (good content, relevant keywords, H1 tags, etc.) that will take you so far. But in the last few Google updates, the linking (quality of links, not necessarily quantity) has become the dominant factor. Do links increase the value of the site to the searcher? I’m not going there, it’s Google’s playground so you have to abide by their rules.

Web site promotion is an ongoing battle, especially with the search engines. Web site search engine traffic has a habit of ebbing and weaving due to natural cycles. In fact the Internet cycles are starting to look more like retail cycles every year. Then throw in the different algorithms that each of the big three use and it becomes quite a challenge.

And besides paid advertising, search engine traffic is the only other good source of targeted visitors, and hopefully buyers. So although I don’t depend on search engine traffic, it’s still a big source of daily traffic and provides potential buyers. So doing your basic SEO chores is not very exciting but is definitely necessary.

SEO is also a moving, constantly changing target. And thanks to Google’s Adsense program, there are 1,000s, if not 100 times that, new web sites created every day. New web sites are like rain drops during a cloudburst.

For those of you who have never heard of it, Adsense refers to publishing Google’s Adword client advertisements on a web site. When someone clicks on one of the displayed ads, the web site owner is paid a fee or commission. Now that sounds easy to do but there’s the small item of getting traffic to click the ads, and hence, all the new competition for traffic.

Just the other day I was doing some research on one of my keywords for a website that had fallen on hard times in rankings. In the area above the search results on Google, there is a blue line that shows info on how many results came up out of how many possible results. I keep good records and the last time I did some checking that figure was a possible 5,344,882 web sites that have my keywords.

Now 5 million is a lot, but now the info showed 61 million possible web site results. Whoa, no wonder my position has changed. I now have 12 times the number of competitors. I have records back to 2003 on this web site so I went back and took a look, and in 2003 I had a mere 950,000. So in three years it went from 950,000 to over 61 million.

Holy Cow Batman, that’s incredible. But I have a feeling that’s just the beginning. The competition is going to continue to grow. And this is not a major product area, this is a sub niche web site. Thank you Google Adsense. I have to believe that many of these web sites are Adsense oriented without even looking.

Ok, it’s time to do some serious resuscitation on this poor downtrodden web site. The fastest way I know of to breath some new life (or initially launch a new web site) is content and links. I’ve already done the basic on page optimization so more content, and off page linking is my best bet. Content will be easy, I have a ton of new stuff I can add from multiple sources.

I can write a few new articles and post them on some popular article sites too. I could also do some new interviews with industry experts but my niche is pretty limited, so that my not apply to this web site. Google likes both of those methods and neither will take too much time. I can also do some new links (the text on the link is important too – use keywords in the actual link) on my other related sites.

Now links outside of my other sites are going to be an issue. Links always seem to be a problem. Your web site link partners should have both a good page ranking and very relevant content. Then you also have to have something of value to the web site that will be linking to you.

You can join one of the link web sites, although I usually don’t since there is an outside chance of trouble. Or you can do the Google search on your keywords and email to like web sites. My web site has a good page rank so I should be able to pick up a few that way.

I can also buy some links on some directory sites. There are some good ones at reasonable prices. Look for a good interior ranking (on the category page you will be putting your link). The going rate is anywhere from $10 to $50 per year.

And always keep in mind it’s the quality of links, not quantity. They need to be PR4/5 and above with matching content. I figure 10 new outside links and maybe another 10 pages of new content each month for the next 90 days will help my rankings quite a bit.

So you really should keep an eye on your organic search engine listings. And even though you may not depend on it for all your traffic, it should be a part of your ongoing web site promotion plan. Just getting 10 new links and 10 new pages of viable content a month can have a big impact.

SEO involves a lot more than just content and links but that is a good starting point. And both of these are very easy to do for anyone. There are more sophisticated SEO tactics which I'll cover in another article soon.